Suboxone education..

[556]

Well basically my parents cannot take anymore stress caused by my opiate addiction so we have compromised on suboxone.

My mom basically wants me to educate her on it, and she doesn't believe my word so wants to read about it online.

Thus far what I've told her is that suboxone is the short-term treatment, where the doctor intents on weaning you and it's purely to avoid physical withdrawls, not mental. Methadone is the type of thing that gets increased overtime and is more long term as opposed to suboxone.

Also with methadone you're able to get high regardless of whether you have taken it or not as opposed to suboxone which prevents that. Subutex on the other hand does allow you to continue getting high.

Basically methadone is for people who don't want to live their life without opiates, and suboxone is for people that want to ween and avoid the hardships you typically face when weening.

edit- also, best means of administration? Sublingual or insufflation?

I'm going to show my mom this thread so is there anything else you guys can contribute as far as information about suboxone goes?

thanks
556

[ilovechronic]

suboxone is not necessarily a short term treatment, You can stay on as long as you need. The doc will probably be a moron like most of them and not know anymore about bupe than what the pamphlets say. I know more about bupe than my doctor does.
There is buprenorphine maintenance therapy and also buprenorphine tapers. It is up to your doc what taper they want to do really. The longer tapers are more comfortable. A short 3 day aper of bupe has been shown to help people when coming off a full agonist. The problem is that people relapse because of cravings after they quit. My problem is I am on maintenance because the possibility of relapse is so great for me. As for cravings, it does help with cravings and keeps me clean from full agonists for the most part. Upping the dose wont necessarily take away your cravings but it has shown to help some with cravings.

Subutex does not allow you to continue getting high. This is a common misconception. The naloxone(narcon) in suboxone does absolutely NOTHING and was just put in it as a scare tactic. The truth is that buprenorphine has a higher affinity for the mu opioid receptors than naloxone and naloxone has a short half life so it does absolutely NOTHING. The actual blocking effect is due to buprenorphines high binding affinity for the mu receptors. Bupe is a partial agonist so this means that it also has antagonistic properties, meaning it will kick full agonists off the receptor sites and cause precipitated w/d(just like narcon will) in those who are depnedant.
On a low dose of subutex or suboxone it does not completely block like people say. I could still get a high while being on suboxone or subutex because I am only on 2mg. But once you get up to 8mgs it really starts its magic of blocking.
Since subutex does not have the narcon and flavoring it is diverted and abused more because it is safer to inject than subxone but as far as blocking goes it still contains bupe which is a partial agonist.
So just so you know the narcon in suboxone was just a scare tactic and is useless and does nothing. Even without the narcon it can cause precipitated w/d if you have a ful agonist in your system.

As for insulfation, that is how I take my suboxone and it seems to have an instant or almost instant onset but the half life doesn't last quite as long as sublingual. Also supposedly the BA is higher from insulfation but i think they are pretty close.
if you plan to stay on maintainence then the lower the dose you are on the easier it is to come off. buprenorphine is not a miracle drug like most say you will probably get w/d when coming off of it.
In those who are not dependant or opiate naive it will cause a "high" since it is a partial agonist but in opiate addicted and dependant it will not get them high.
oh, and it is required that you go to a substance abuse therapist while you are on suboxone. Your doc wont make you but they will encourage it.
Some docs will drug test you some wont, mine doesn't. i told her I smoked weed and she was cool with that but that doesn't mean your doc will feel the same. i don;t smoke anymore though anyway.
I hope everything goes well for you man, good luck with your recovery.

[spencetron]

I was never on suboxone treatment, but I use it sometimes. I always snort my suboxone, the pills powder super easy, hits fast, and tastes like orange gatorade. (8mg orange ones). It also takes me about half as much snorted than it does sublingually to achieve the same effect.